Kampala- More than 200 police officers, who were allegedly deleted from the payroll on suspicion that they were “ghosts”, yesterday pitch-camp at the police headquarters demanding their salaries.

However, the officers were blocked from accessing the offices, instead they were told to register their complaints at the reception.

Some of them who spoke to the Daily Monitor said they had spent more than five months without receiving their salaries.

“Since the year started, my salary was stopped. I have been living on hand-outs from colleagues. I work and my superiors see me but they claim that I am a ghost,” an officer said.

Recently, the Auditor General’s report indicated they had found more than 9,000 non-existent civil servants’ on the payroll.

The human resource department of the Force met the officers outside of the headquarters to explain to them why their salaries were delaying.

Although police spokesperson Fred Enanga had earlier said the problem would be resolved by mid-May, he admitted yesterday that it is beyond their control.

“There was migration from the old payment system of Uganda Computer Services, that had challenges, to a new system under Public Service that deletes any name that appears twice on the payroll,” Mr Enanga said.

He said another system by the Finance ministry also blocked officers pay because they did not have Integrated Financial Management System numbers.abagala@ug.nationmedia.com